The author's goals in this exercise were to use an Excel project to teach students about the effects of changing states of nature on critical path emergence as well as compare the impact of the PERT beta and triangular distributions on project completion times. Previous research into the PERT (program evaluation and review technique) beta distribution indicated a tendency for this distribution to overstate the impact of the dominant critical path on project completion times. The author used a Monte Carlo simulation and a new Excel function to explore the effects of random variation on critical path emergence. He used both the triangular distribution and the PERT beta distribution to calculate project completion times. The author found that three of the possible five paths became critical in both the PERT beta and triangular distributions. However, the triangular distribution moderated the PERT beta distribution's tendency toward the dominate critical path.